Host processing systems such as mobile computing systems, may be configured through the addition of various add-on cards or components. For example, a mobile computing system may be configured through the addition of a Network Interface Card (NIC), a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) card, a blue-tooth card, etc.
Sometimes, the add-on cards may perform complex data processing and may require significant amounts of power. It will be appreciated that when the host processing system is running on battery power, the amount of power consumed by the add-on card has to be controlled so as to avoid the battery discharging to a dangerously low level.
Existing power management solutions pre-configure the add-on cards to operate within certain operating parameters, independently of the needs of a user. Thus, for example, if a user is currently running an application that requires high performance, a power management solution of the prior art would continue to operate with the pre-configured operating parameters even if the battery level is currently high enough to support the required high performance.